1 million downloads of Shazam on Ovi Store

Published by Rafe Blandford at 14:01 UTC, March 23rd 2010

Shazam announced today that its music recognition application has been downloaded by over one million Nokia users from the Ovi Store since its launch in August last year. The Shazam app has been downloaded in more than 200 different markets onto over 40 different handsets. Read on for further details, a video interview and a demo with Shazam's Iain Dendle at MWC 2010, together with some additional App Store commentary.

Shazam say that the success on Ovi Store has "reinforced its leadership position of consumer discovery in the mobile application space". More than 50 million people have used Shazam and it is able to recognise over 8 million different tracks.

The numbers also demonstrate the growing strength of Ovi Store and its ability to reach consumers on a global basis. Shazam joins a number of other application and companies in the '1 million Ovi Store club' including Polarbit (games), Ravensoft (utilities), MMMOOO (themes), Nimbuzz (IM application) and Nokia themselves (Ovi Maps).

Marco Argenti, VP of Media & Games, Nokia said: "Shazam keeps being one of the top apps Ovi Store users love because of its ingredients of success: simplicity, usefulness, fun. This recipe has resonated with music lovers around the world who now can 'tag' the music they like and be able to purchase it from Nokia Music Store with just a couple of clicks".

Andrew Fisher, CEO of Shazam, said: “Through our relationship with Nokia, Shazam has been enjoyed by music lovers across the globe. We were extremely delighted with the reach of the Ovi Store – in the first 48hrs we reached consumers in 178 countries!”   

Shazam can be downloaded from Ovi Store as a free 30 day trial. After the trial is over users can continue using the app on a limited use basis or chose to upgrade to an unlimited usage version for a one-off fee  ($4.99, €3.99 or £2.99).

Video demo and interview with Iain Dendle

Key points:

  • Shazam is a music recognition application, which is available for most mobile platforms. It allows people to discover music playing in the environment around them. Users record a 10 second clip which is uploaded to Shazam servers and recognised from its fingerprint.
     
  • Once the music has been recognised, users have various options including the ability to download the full track from the Nokia Music Store, discographies, and links to YouTube for the appropriate music video.
     
  • There are also music charts of the most 'tagged' music and there's the ability to share to your friends with a single click (SMS/Email/Twitter/Facebook etc.)
     
  • Shazam is available from the Ovi Store and is also pre-loaded on a number of Nokia handsets, including the 5630 XpressMusic.
     
  • The second half of the video includes a full demo of the application so you can see for yourself some of the functionality described above.

Commentary

It is interesting to see Shazam release numbers for the Ovi Store. For a well known mobile solution, Shazam has released relatively limited information about downloads from App Stores. Shazam did announce late last year that it had achieved 10 million downloads from the Apple App Store (since August 2008). Now it is announcing its numbers for Nokia's Ovi Store, which hints at strategic changes in the App Store world.

Announcements like this represent strong endorsement for Nokia, but they are also very important as proof points. Nokia can use them as case studies to show other developers what is possible. The validation of both the distribution and business model is essential if Nokia is to persuade more content providers to partner with Ovi Store. Clearly it is still early days, but with such examples and growing daily download figures, Nokia is moving in the right direction.

It is also much healthier for developers to have multiple application stores in which to place their products. With the rise of Ovi Store, Blackberry App World, Android Marketplace and third party players like GetJar, it is certain that the industry as a whole will move away from the perception of an App Store monoculture. This is important for the viability and stability of developers' business models, but also underlines that it is early days and many opportunities remain. Or, put another way, the ecosystem is growing - becoming more organic, but many open niches remain.

Rafe Blandford, AAS


 

Filed: Home > News > 1 million downloads of Shazam on Ovi Store

Platforms: S60 3rd Edition, S60 5th Edition

Categories: Software, Developer, Industry, Editorial Thoughts

News Discussion

Unregistered
Shazam is nice, no doubt but it also raises the question, why they don't use the store to sell their premium version instead using a strange looking website which doesn't work. It doesn't like my access point. The success of a store is not measured by the number of free apps downloaded but by the number of paid apps downloaded. And if one of themost successfull apps chooses to use something else for payment, it puts a big question mark on the ovi store.
Unregistered
Why not also report that the Ovi site is hosed as normal?
Unregistered
Either Ovi Store or Shazam needs to fix what phones Shazam is listed as compatible with. For some reason it is now incompatible with the N95 8GB. I still have it on my phone but it appears to be another problem to add to the list with regards to the Ovi Store (my other major one is the lack of updating applications via Ovi Store).
neilhoskins
They're a belting good company, too. Because the Ovi store works only (very) intermittently on my handset, they pointed me to the sisx file and gave me an alternative way of paying.
Unregistered
Shazam doesn't work on N97 w. firmware 20.xx.xx and onwards, which is really crappy.

It is quite a fail not to support the newest firmware in a piece of software.
Unregistered
Rafe,

The reason the App Store is successful is because it works. Ovi can not claim the same degree of reliability. Another reason is that developers have said for years that Symbian is very difficult to develop for. How about the 70% - 30% split that developers get with the App Store? Just all things Ovi are terrible at the moment. Go try and provision a phone to sync with it and report back how it goes. Nokia's assertion that it will become a services company is laughable. How can you offer services when people cannot even access them? The fact that you guys fail time and time again to really eats at your credibility. How about some really critical reporting that delves at the heart of Nokia's issues? You are supposed to be the ones to keep them honest but I see very little of that from AAS. On a very serious note, does AAS receive some sort of compensation from Nokia for not writing critical articles?
Unregistered
i use 21 version on my n97 and shazam works great!!!
Unregistered
Quote:
Originally Posted by Unregistered View Post
Rafe,

The reason the App Store is successful is because it works. Ovi can not claim the same degree of reliability. Another reason is that developers have said for years that Symbian is very difficult to develop for. How about the 70% - 30% split that developers get with the App Store? Just all things Ovi are terrible at the moment. Go try and provision a phone to sync with it and report back how it goes. Nokia's assertion that it will become a services company is laughable. How can you offer services when people cannot even access them? The fact that you guys fail time and time again to really eats at your credibility. How about some really critical reporting that delves at the heart of Nokia's issues? You are supposed to be the ones to keep them honest but I see very little of that from AAS. On a very serious note, does AAS receive some sort of compensation from Nokia for not writing critical articles?
In reality the Ovi Store just works for most people. For the few that have trouble with it, you find them all together crying on internet message boards, and this gives a false impression. From day one Ovi store has worked perfectly for me and I can have no complaints. It's probably not cost effective for Nokia to try and make the Ovi store so simple that the few incompetent half withs that have trouble can be satisfied. The article points out that a Shazam have announced a million downloads through the Ovi Store. I would say that it quite an impressive figure for a service that "people cannot even access". People can access them, and they do.

Symbian is not difficult to develop for, good developers have no trouble with it and produce Quick Office, Maps, ProfiMail, Gracity etc without complaining. Crap developers struggle a bit and blame Symbian.

My Ovi Sync works.

There are plenty of examples of articles on AAS that are critical of Nokia.

There are also some AAS readers with selective vision, it would appear.
Unregistered
I have had no problems with the Ovi store. Shazam has worked excellent for me. I use the 5800xm. My only problem with the phone is I have run out of internal memory. Otherwise it's fantastic. My buddy has an e71 (non at&t) and he has had lackluster feelings. His Shazam doesn't recognize the music very often. He found it does work better without the case on though. His firmware update kinda is screwy too. The only thing is Nokia needs to get the Nokia Music Store up and running for the US. I hope there are plans to put it online soon otherwise I just sit and look at the phone wishing I had that awesome song. I hate iTunes and have really become an iHater! Just in the same vane iUsers hate Microsoft (What's the difference anymore I ask you? - this is a rhetorical question mind you!)
Hurlley
As much as I love to hate on Nokia, there are two things that are right Ovi Maps and Ovi Sync, credit where credit is due. These two things I am happy with.
neilhoskins
Quote:
Originally Posted by Unregistered View Post
...few incompetent half withs that have trouble...
That's completely out of order and I think you know it, otherwise you wouldn't be bravely making such stupid statements anonymously. I'm not going to get into a debate with a cretin like you over my relative IQ levels and competence, so suffice it to say, go forth, multiply, FOAD.
Rafe
On Shazam payment - the reason behind the 'srange' web site to do payment is because it is a subscription service for a year. Subscriptions are not currently supported by the Ovi Store payment engine.

And yes I know there are other developers who are irritated that an exception has been made for Shazam.

Quote:
How about the 70% - 30% split that developers get with the App Store? Just all things Ovi are terrible at the moment. The fact that you guys fail time and time again to really eats at your credibility. How about some really critical reporting that delves at the heart of Nokia's issues? You are supposed to be the ones to keep them honest but I see very little of that from AAS. On a very serious note, does AAS receive some sort of compensation from Nokia for not writing critical articles?
Just to note Ovi Store in 70-30% too... and yes operator billing is different - it is 70-30 after the operator takes their split... not ideal obviously, but one of the things you have to live with if you to enables opeartor billing which is very important in some markets / consumer segments.

I suspect you're being deliberately obtuse / baiting and some other commenters have already replied to you on some of the points. But as for sake of clarity - no AAS does not 'receive some sort of compensation from Nokia for not writing critical articles'. We are completely editorially independet. BTW It's honestly difficult to take a comment credibly when you make it anonymously.

And as a general comment, please everyone, keep comments civil.
sapporobaby
While I am currently having a few problems with Ovi Sync (could be the phone), for the most part it has worked as advertised and I have word that it will be smoking right along soon. Nokia just needs to beef it up a bit and make it a bit more reliable but most of the time it works as advertised.

A million downloads is pretty good for one app.

I do disagree with the crappy scenario reference. Some developers have said that developing for Symbian is not a pleasurable experience. Just because some developers have created some nice apps, does not mean that it is easy. Sort of shortsighted and typical to view everything in either black or white. All OS's have their strengths and weaknesses and each appeals to different individuals based on needs. It's just that simple.
sapporobaby
Quote:
Originally Posted by neilhoskins View Post
That's completely out of order and I think you know it, otherwise you wouldn't be bravely making such stupid statements anonymously. I'm not going to get into a debate with a cretin like you over my relative IQ levels and competence, so suffice it to say, go forth, multiply, FOAD.
Best post ever. Nicely aimed. Could not have said it better myself.
malerocks
Quote:
Originally Posted by sapporobaby View Post
Just because some developers have created some nice apps, does not mean that it is easy.
This can be said the other way round too - just because some developers have trouble creating nice apps, does not mean that it is difficult. The fact remains that good apps do exist out there for Symbian, so logically it does not mean that its as difficult as rocket science.
sapporobaby
Quote:
Originally Posted by malerocks View Post
This can be said the other way round too - just because some developers have trouble creating nice apps, does not mean that it is difficult. The fact remains that good apps do exist out there for Symbian, so logically it does not mean that its as difficult as rocket science.
Agreed. I guess I should have expanded my post to reflect this but I thought it was obvious.
SergejsU
I didn' t download Shazam because of that so much ridiculous and irritating IOvi store experience that I have been visiing twice : first time, to acknowledge as never-ever again- since to find teh application in which you could be interested , you have to scroll on mobile through twenty or even more pages - upload of new page is very slow, in addition I can' t undrestnad why I can' t do the same just via browser if teh experience is actually teh same, and have to install on my precious C: Phone memory some nonperforming 5MB Ovi Store application? Then I visited after 6 months or so, Ovi Store again, to get newest version of Mail for Exchnage, and wished to download Shazam. Tyoing " Shazam" in the search box brough no result. Then I scrolled category Music and there were no Shazam in. I knew that Shazam *is* somewhere on the OviStore, but what teh hell as a user I have to look through agains tons of pages on that Ovi Store?

Taking into consideration how much money Nokia spent on that pityful OVI experinece, I woudl fire all teh related Nokai mnagers ith thsi project at once.

Beside sad story of Ovi,we have ridicilious Nokia Supprt Discussion with something liek 132750 posts in some topics?? - and kosty of them unanswered - so it shoudl eb given up to get any meaningful information there, but Nokia Care or similar experience is mostlu about ununcompetent staff, who knows much less about your phone than you.

Lloking forward when market competition forces will bring both products and support and associated services to better level!! As per now to make a choice e.g. between Nokia, apple, HTC, Samsung and others is not very enjoyabl expernice as any of them have vary major flops either with product istlef or support or associated services.
Unregistered
It pretends it does until you try to tag a song. I could not tag one single song, did not find any data. Luckily I had my most hated iPhone, and on this device is works and tags every single time.

I tried tagging the same songs at the same time. iPhone no fail, N97 never found the track... And did you know that it was free for the iPhone??? such a nice application, what happened to the implementation, shouldn't it be seamless across platforms and devices? On top you have to pay for a subscription? please....

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